I noticed that Euro MPs have been making noises today about airlines misleading the public when they offer cheap fares but don't show hidden charges! Are we going to see some action at last? I won't hold my breath, especially as far as Ryanair are concerned.
I recently booked flights on Ryanair for friends who are going from Dublin to London ( Stansted).
The flights were actually advertised as FREE for 2 adults and 2 children, but mysteriously a 3 month old baby was being charged 20 Euro. I checked different times and dates but the poor little baby was always charged 20 Euro while everybody else went "free". Anyway, when taxes were factored in ( €39.98 each way) the total price, including beautiful little baby, a not unreasonable - €119.96.
You can now check-in Online of course and avoid the queueing and hassle at the airport AND having to pay for checking-in - good idea this if you can travel with a small amount of luggage that you can bring aboard the plane. So I try to check-in my friends Online.
Problemo! Ryanair will not let you check-in Online - IF you have an infant (under 2 years) I kid you not! (pun intended) . So, we try again and must check the family in at the airport. But now Mr O'Leary charges the 2 adults and 2 children €10 each for Airport Check-in, an extra €40. Total price now - €159.96.
Ryanair now charge you for your luggage of course, but if you tick the box for "No luggage & airport check-in" you are still charged the €10, even though you have NO luggage. Our family now decide that if they are being made to go through the checking-in procedure anyway and are being charged they might as well bring 2 bags, so we tick the boxes. The price jumps another €40. New price - €199.96.
We continue with the booking, making sure to UN TICK boxes that charge you for Travel Insurance (€18 extra per person) - and best of all, "Priority Boarding" and a fee for the dubious benefit of being first to board the plane (€10 per person).
We proceed to purchase the tickets, the Ryanair website is working at a snails pace and eventually crashes, so we have to start all over again inputting all the information from start to finish. We get to the "Purchase" button - and the site crashes again! So we go for a coffee and come back to Ryanair in 1 hour. That's more than the flight time Dublin to London, but the problem still persists, so, frustrated, we decide to leave it for 24 hours.
Next day, thankfully the prices have not gone up and eventually we get our "Confirmation Number" - and a sting in the tail! What HAS gone up is the price we are charged - an extra €40 Euro, they called it a "Handling Fee"- €10 per person, seemingly it's for the luxury of using a credit card for booking the flights, total charge -€239.92. FREE FLIGHTS, HA HA HA..
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment